Saifi Institute for Arabic Language was established by Rana Dirani in January of 2008 in one room with one teacher. Rana, who has been teaching Arabic since 2000, and doing mental planning for Saifi since at least 2005, decided to start her own school with the help and inspiration of her husband Mac McClenahan. In August 2010 Saifi expanded into is current location in Gemayze and is now the largest Arabic language school in Lebanon.

Mayor de Blasio’s announcement that within 10 years all New York City public school students will take computer science classes is welcome news. But Java, Python and C++ are not the only languages critical for 21st century success. Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and French are vital, too.

It's not often that a totally new way of learning languages comes along, especially one which isn't an app or reliant on technology. Power Play aims to make language learning realistic and interactive, and the idea is simple: All of the information that you would usually find inside a textbook is presented in bite-size chunks, on cards. The real genius of the idea is to turn the whole learning process into a game that can be played by one, two, ten, or even a whole classroom of people. A pack of Power Play cards will be a teacher or student's best friend, both inside and outside of the classroom.